What Ichthyoseurs ate for lunch

[Brian G Turner]

What Ichthyosaurs ate for lunch

Here's a fun little article - basically, after analysing the fossil contents of fossilised Ichthyosaur skeletons, the idea that a belamite crash caused their extintion appears unsupported now (though, of course, could still be contentiously argued for).

Apparently, Ichthyosaurs much prefered to eat small turtlers instead:

Ichthyosaurs ate turtle soup

Ancient dolphin-like ichthyosaurs had a penchant for baby turtles, palaeontologists have discovered. The diet could have led to their downfall.

The marine reptiles lived 230-90 million years ago while dinosaurs stalked the earth. They were thought to have been picky eaters, grazing mainly on small squid-like belemnites. In fact, "they dined out on a wide range of things," says Ben Kear of the South Australian Museum in Adelaide.

Kear and his colleagues picked through the preserved stomach contents of a 110 million- year-old fossilized ichthyosaur after slowly dissolving the surrounding limestone with acid. They found fish, baby turtles and even a small bird, whose corpse the beast probably swallowed.

The reptile's varied taste calls into question the idea that a drought of belemnites forced ichthyosaurs into extinction. Competition for food with other marine reptiles or modern bony fish, might have led to their demise instead, suggests Kear.

Ichthyosaurs pique the interest of palaeontologists because, like modern whales and seals, they reveal how animals evolved from land-loving ancestors into ones at home in water. They had fish-like bodies, a tail fin and paddles that had evolved from legs.

 

[scifimoth]

Re:What Ichthyosaurs ate for lunch

This makes me wonder if a few million years from now someone is going to analyze our stomach contents?!

 

[Brian G Turner]

Re:What Ichthyosaurs ate for lunch

LOL! Does chocolate fossilise?

 

[scifimoth]

Re:What Ichthyosaurs ate for lunch

Hmmm...it does crystalize....LOL

 

[Brian G Turner]

Re:What Ichthyosaurs ate for lunch

LOL!!